ALBANY COUNTY — Low-income households that have been unable to afford internet service at retail rates may now be able to under the Federal Communications Commission’s new emergency discount program.

The fund holds $3.2 billion, Deputy Director of Media Relations for the FCC, Anne Veigle, told The Enterprise this week. The program will end when these funds are exhausted, or six months after the end of the COVID-19 health emergency, whichever comes first. Veigle did not answer a question about how long the funding might be projected to last should the declared emergency continue indefinitely. 

Qualifying households will receive up to $50 per month for broadband expenses, and a one-time discount of up to $100 for a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer, the program webpage states.

To qualify, a household must:

— Earn 135 percent or less of the current federal poverty value (to calculate the baseline quickly, start with $17,388 for a household of one, and add $6,129 per additional member);

— Have experienced a substantial loss of income due to COVID-19 with a 2020 income below $99,000 for single filers or $198,000 for joint filers; or

— Have someone in the household who qualifies for other low-income government services such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

People may apply online at getemergencybroadband.com, through the mail, or over the phone with a local internet service provider participating in the program. 

When announcing the program at a press conference on May 13, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy suggested that this program would be especially helpful for Hilltown residents, who have long lacked stable internet access, either because no broadband connection exists close to their homes, or because of low income. 

For those who have the means but lack the infrastructure, Hilltown residents’ best chance at internet access in the near future appears to be through the SpaceX satellite-internet project Starlink, which recently received massive federal funding so it can expand its service across the country. 

Some Hilltown locations appear to be eligible for service now, while the rest are expected to be eligible later this year, according to the Starlink website, which determines the eligibility of individual addresses. 

However, a Starlink subscription is likely to be more expensive than one through a provider using broadband. The monthly Starlink cost is advertised at $99, which is nearly twice as expensive as the cheapest rates advertised by local internet service providers, in addition to nearly $600 for hardware and its delivery.

The town of Westerlo will soon apply for a grant that would benefit low-income families who can’t access the internet. Supervisor William Bichteman told The Enterprise earlier this month that the majority of the town lives on low-to-moderate incomes. 

“Regardless of whether we have the service available to the properties,” Bichteman said, “we still have to be able to make that connection.”

More information about the state of broadband in the Hilltowns and other communities in New York State is expected a year from now, when the results of study into internet connection rates commissioned by the state are due, according to a press release from Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, who chairs the State Assemby’s Commission on Rural Resources.

The study is meant to go deeper than current analyses of internet coverage, which are typically done at the census-block level. Because service is generally defined by its availability to at least one household in a census block, connectivity rates can be inflated, particularly in rural areas where census blocks are larger and broadband availability is less regular. 

Highly detailed information regarding the state of broadband is key to acquiring funding from entities like the FCC for either infrastructure or affordability projects, which in turn is key to expanding coverage. 

Hudson Valley Wireless General Manager Jason Guzzo explained to The Enterprise last year that federal subsidies would be critical to expansion because private companies don’t have an incentive to invest in communities that won’t turn a profit. He explained that the extension of service in the last few households in an area might make up 80 percent of the cost to build the network.

“Many of the rural communities would already have broadband access if it were profitable for a provider to deploy service,” Guzzo said.